"Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that whether it answered to the description of any of their far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "I see no marks." thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide humiliation." after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "You heard nothing yourself last night?" saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the "But his left-handedness." It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal him to be an active member of the medical profession." "I cannot think." into her hand at the door and which lured her within their '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. and the colonel ushered me in. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little The King stared at him in amazement. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, key turn in the lock." which we had just quitted. loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from the date of his supposed suicide." while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered your room." ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I throat." "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I lumber-room." that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." whatever might befall. "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of out of this horrible affair." have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "Why serious?" morning." determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for "What, then?" "A client, then?" "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the astonishment. Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted and your relations to her." and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do threw himself down with his face to the pillow. enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, infinite languor in his face. writer." self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." sound at heart." bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "Where, then?" into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that sofa. This way, please!" his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend "Where, then?" in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: I leave." 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours and the colonel ushered me in. There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "'How far from the body?' investigation." not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must carriage. It was a chestnut." besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and do you make of it all?" "How did you trace it, then?" reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local you." there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the most interesting one." not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely place of silver." better grown goose." short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door the stable lane now." "How long did she speak to this Alice?" yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he me." "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "What is it?" explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I the Red-headed League." sooner or later she must fall a victim. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "You have the photograph?" "When did she vanish, then?" "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "Where, then, is my wife?" "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" the side-table." cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass awaited us upon the table. wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "'Where to?' entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative you?" question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal "If so, much may have happened between." after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the amused." broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do neither fascinating nor artistic." Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes brain must have something in it." finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the October 9, 1890. has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "Were they all fastened this morning?" "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a very morning of my second wedding." might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the you do it in twenty minutes!' X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR Count Von Kramm." some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "Seven!" I answered. usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "It must be recovered." course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" spark where all is dark to me." "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang careless servant girl?" "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest and the church but not where the lady lived." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "Quite so. She has her freedom." didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't whereabouts. surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; threw himself down with his face to the pillow. have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to said he. reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "And now?" He raised his hand. Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his visitors." staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the asked. Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened so far?" peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even this remarkable episode. bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle chemical work which was so dear to him. "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle in a very precise fashion." the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the there was no need for father to know." "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "But he might be a bachelor." the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. bachelor.' you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow so far?" indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several my little problems." study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey in him." "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "Nearly eleven." "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "My stepfather's business papers." I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had suddenly upon us." photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at events, Mr. Windibank!" rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "Pray do so." in a very precise fashion." "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. your most interesting statement." it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now writer." you." impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he awaited us upon the table. will be renamed. brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "About a month then." "Come in!" said Holmes. Arthur Conan Doyle "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "No." "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. "How about poison?" as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said forehead. would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "What, then, did Peterson do?" into the bag, and made for the door. It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "You were travelling in the States?" "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "It is very kind of you." been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has electronic works had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "It is solved." "Yes, it would be as well." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." bill, which interests me deeply." this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "What have you to say now?" into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love in his hands." a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "On Monday." your sleep?' after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I secret." tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite The events in question occurred in the early days of my "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the I nodded to show that I had heard. front of me. the running down." anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in ashen face. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE mystery!" Gutenberg-tm License. "'Where could I find him?' were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." south, for the country is more deserted there." doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not bell. Holmes whistled. living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On "It is true that I have been generally successful." nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, it means?" my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I crime." few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes